The CHSW Out-of-Home Care Program provides temporary, nurturing care to children and youth who cannot remain in the home with their birth parents.
The goal of the Out-of-Home Care program is for children to eventually return to their birth families or to transition to a permanent adoptive placement if return to home is not possible. The program has a special focus on permanency, which includes working for a safe reunification with birth families, placing the child in an adoptive home, coordinating other long-term placements, and preparing older youth for a healthy transition to adulthood.
Foster families and kinship families, or relatives of the child serving as their guardians, commit to providing a stable and supportive home for a child until the youth's permanent plan is resolved. Foster families and kinship families may begin at any point along CHSW's continuum of services, as well as move along it as appropriate:
All foster and kinship families have the reward of knowing they provided a stable and supportive home for a youth while the permanent situation was being resolved. Read our Foster Care FAQ to learn more about the rewarding benefits of being a foster parent. Already decided that you want to help Washington's children by becoming a foster parent? Download an application today.